


Graduation

by happyaspie



Series: Turning of the Tides [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Aged-Up Peter Parker, Anxious Peter Parker, College Applications, College Student Peter Parker, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Father-Son Relationship, Graduation, Hot Chocolate, Infinity War and Endgame Never Happened Thank You Very Much, Late Night Conversations, Not Canon Compliant, Peter Needs a Nap, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Has a Family, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony is a good mentor, Tony loves his kid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-05-19 14:12:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19358617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyaspie/pseuds/happyaspie
Summary: The closer Peter gets to college the more unsure he becomes but Tony is there and ready to help him through it.





	Graduation

**Author's Note:**

> [Edited 7/2 - 8:45 EST] A small portion of the dialog was updated to reflect the correct passage of time. My mistake posted the wrong version. I shall be more careful in the future. *sigh* Thank you jwriter819 for pointing it out. You rock.

When the time came to start putting in college applications, Peter had mixed feelings.  While he was eager to move on to the next phase of his life, he was also hesitant to leave what he already had behind.  He and Ned were still inseparable best friends, he and MJ had some sort of awkward relationship going that no one could quite put a label on and he'd become something of a local celebrity as Spider-man.  With guidance from Tony, he'd been able to take on larger threats leading to the people becoming more and more fascinated by him and his good deeds.

 

Then there was Tony.  Between his actual internship and superhero mentoring, Peter was seeing him nearly every day.  In fact, he saw him almost more than he saw May.  They had grown close.  Probably closer than they were ever meant to have become.  Somehow, Tony has shifted from being his Mentor to being something more like a father to him and they both knew it.  At this point, everyone knew it.  May and Pepper knew it and were both supportive.  The school knew it and had grown used the billionaire's presence in their halls.  Even the public knew it, once the press conference had been held nearly a year an half ago to announce him as Tony's all but adopted son, his protege and the heir to Stark Industries. 

 

It had been a wild last few years of slowly emerging maturity and personal growth as both himself and as his superhero alter-ego.  Things were good just as they were.  Which why when it was brought to his attention that he needed to start getting those applications filled out he faltered.  He needed to attend college.  He wanted to attend college.  He just wasn't sure he was really ready for that.  Even after talking to Ned, MJ and even the school counselor he wasn't sure.  They had all assure him that he still had the remainder of the school year and an entire summer to get himself ready but it didn't change the amount of unease that he felt.

 

Later that afternoon as he worked side by side with Tony in his personal lab, Peter was quiet.  Quiet enough that Tony knew something was wrong.  He always knew and Peter had long since stopped bothering to try to keep secrets from him.  "What's got you so down today, Kid?", Tony'd asked shortly after they had begun their work.

 

"College.", Peter answered simply.  "It's my senior year and I'm supposed to be putting in my applications soon."

 

Tony didn't look up from the image he was studying.  He could hear the anxiety in his kid's voice and maybe it was selfish, but he didn't want to see it.  He hated it when the kid was anything but happy and excited.  Sure, he'd seen him upset before.  He'd been there for him after his first real mistake as a superhero, during the aftermath of his very first break up and been with him through all of his teenage angst.  However, hearing him so torn about something they had both been excitedly discussing for several years now was heartbreaking.  "That's exciting, right?  You've been looking forward to attending college for as long as I've known you."

 

"It is.", Peter said with no real emotion.  "It's also kind of, I don't know... daunting?"

 

"Hmm.", Tony replied ambiguously. He didn't want to ignore or validate the boy's feelings at the moment so he tried to stay neutral. "Yeah, well, you have some time to get ready for it.  You're applying to MIT correct?"

 

"Yeah.", Peter said with a smile in his mentor's direction.  Not only was it his school of choice but Tony has also been encouraging it.  They had taken a tour of the campus together, the summer before and Tony had gone on and on about Peter being his legacy despite the lack of legal relations.  When Peter had pointed that out later, Tony had threatened to adopt him.  It had been a really great trip.

 

"Good boy.", Tony muttered with a smile, looking towards the kid for the first time since the conversation had started.  He still seemed uneasy but he was smiling now and that was enough for Tony for the moment.  They could work through this.  The kid just needed some time to wrap his brain around the fact that things were going to happen whether he wanted them to or not.  Ned would be going off to college as well, though whether or not they would be going together was still a mystery.  Peter had said at one point that MJ was already applying to colleges abroad and May had been talking about taking a position as a traveling nurse once Peter graduated for a while now.  Whether he went to college or took a paid position at SI, change was inevitable.  It was just a matter of helping Peter sort out what his place was going to be amongst this turning of the tides.

 

A couple of weeks later, Peter was sitting at a table with Tony filling out his application to MIT.  The process had been long and anxiety-inducing but it felt good to have it out of the way.  Tony was insistent that he would get in there no matter what information he'd entered on the forms but Peter was diligent all the same.  Filling in every last blank with the best possible answers attaching his best entrance exam scores and letters of recommendation, of which he had several.  It struck Tony as amusing that the kid had entered his letter last.  If he were in Peter's shoes he would have attached it to the first page but Peter wasn't like him.  He was humble and wanted to get in on his own Merit and if Tony was being honest with himself, Peter didn't really need a letter of recommendation from him.  His grades, scores and extra-curricular spoke highly of him in and of themselves.   He really was a well-rounded kid and exactly what MIT would be looking for.

 

With that application filed, Peter had assumed he was done with it but when May found out he'd only filled out the one she reasoned with him to apply to at least two more if for no other reason than to have options.  Not willing to disagree, Peter spent the next couple of weekends filling out three more applications.  CalTech, NYIT, and Princeton, just to see if he could get in.

 

Beyond that, it was a waiting game.  Peter went about the remainder of his school year and graduated top of his class.  He gave a speech right alongside, Tony who'd been invited to speak and the entire day had been a blur.  Optimism and laughter hung in the air like the pappi of a thousand dandelions.   Through all of the hugs and photographs and well into the night of celebrations, the smile never left Peter's face.  It was as if the day had been specifically set aside as a reprieve from the growing uncertainty that he'd been harboring over the last several months.

 

It wasn't until well after midnight when the sun was threatening to rise that Peter's mind and body stilled enough to become fully aware that the entire day had been something of a cross over for himself and his classmates.  They were no longer children dependant on their parents and teachers to guide them every single step of the way.  They were now standing right at the cusp of adulthood where the expectation of success and independence was looming in their future, waiting to weigh them down.  They had all been told that there was plenty of time for each of them to prepare for this imminent shift in accountability but Peter wasn't so sure.  Even with two months of summer ahead of him, he felt ill-prepared and overwhelmed by the prospect.

 

Knowing that sleep wasn't going to come he pulled his Spider-suit on and headed towards the Stark's penthouse apartment in Manhattan.   He was almost certain that Tony would be awake and in his makeshift lab that had been set up in one of the home's smaller bedrooms.  He nearly always was at this time of the morning because ' _That's the hour of inspiration, Pete._ '  It was a constant, even on the nights that he stayed in the room set aside just for him, Peter would wake up to the sound of his surrogate father tinkering around with one thing or another in the room beside him.  He would listen to the clinking and muttering for several minutes before drifting back off to sleep with the prospect of what new inventions and upgrades would be awaiting him when he next awoke, swirling around in his head.   

 

Carefully scaling the building until he reached the very top window's, Peter peeked into the study to find Tony, his head resting in his arms on the holographic table that he used for all of his designs.  For a moment, he thought the man was asleep and considered turning around to go back to his own apartment in Queens but before he could the man lifted his head and smiled at him.  "Hey, Pete.  What are you doing out so late?  Or is it early?", he said as he lifted the window and removed the screen so Peter could enter.

 

"It's late.", Peter sheepishly uttered.  They both knew what the hour was.  The question was more of a code that they used to see whether or not the other had slept any at all. 

 

"Well, it's a little early for me.", Tony said with a smile as he started to clear off the small couch in the corner so that they could sit.  All of their most serious conversations had taken place on that couch and if Peter was slinking into the window at such an ungodly hour, then a serious discussion had to be on the horizon.  It wouldn't be surprising.  Tony had known for months now that Peter had been both eagerly awaiting and fitfully dreading graduation.  "To what do I own the pleasure of your company on this fine morning?"

 

As Peter removed his mask he twisted his mouth to the side and bit his lip as if he were trying to hold back everything he wanted to say.  Eventually, Tony sighed and suggested that Peter go into his room and change into something more comfortable.  As he did so, the man went into the kitchen to make himself some coffee and while Peter had long since been drinking coffee himself, for old times sake, Tony pulled a packet of hot chocolate out of the cabinet.  Up until Peter's seventeenth birthday, Tony had insisted that he was not stupid enough to hand a hyperactive child a steaming hot cup of pure caffeine.  Offering the liquid confection as an alternative.

 

Tony was just adding the copious amounts of marshmallows that the boy used to require when Peter rounded the corner wearing some sweat pants and a Stark Industries T-Shirt.  He held out the mug and the boy took it with a roll of his eyes and a smile before they both walked back into the study.  Peter set his mug down on the side table and Tony began to sip from his.  "What's on your mind, Kid?  I can see those wheels in your head turning."

 

"Well...", Peter began, never taking eyes off of his hands that were resting in his lap.  "...I'm not really a kid anymore, am I?"

 

"You'll always be my kid, kid.", Tony said with a smirk.  "Even when you're forty-six and have kid's of your own." He knew what the boy was getting at but for some reason, it felt like the right thing to say. When it made Peter smile he knew he'd been right.  He'd gotten way better knowing what the kid needed to hear over the years.  He knew how to make him laugh, how to help ease his sorrow and exactly how much space was necessary for healing whenever they fought with one another.  It had all become second nature.  Peter was his kid.  It was as simple as that.

 

"I know that.", Peter said with a slight smile.  He'd long since gotten used to the man referring to him as such but it never failed to make him feel loved.  "It's just that I've been thinking and now that I'm eighteen and not in high school anymore..."

 

Knowing Peter well enough to know exactly where that train of thought was heading he decided to step in.  "You're still young, Pete.  No one is expecting you to become a full-fledged contributing member of society just yet.--"

 

"--but it's college, Tony!  I have to do it all on my own.--", Peter nearly shouted as he brought his hands up to cling into his hair.  An anxious tell that Tony had long since come to recognize as the last call before a complete breakdown.

 

Sighing a heavy sigh, Tony gently removed the boy's hands from his own hair and replaced them with one of his own, gently pushing the fringe out of the boy's eyes.  "Nope. Never on your own.  Nothing, ever.  You have May, Pepper and myself all backing you up.  You have Ned and MJ and all of the other--"

 

"--You guy's won't be with me!", Peter spat back before Tony could finish his thought.  It seemed that it was already thoroughly ingrained in Peter's mind that college and life beyond was a solo event.  He wasn't sure what it would take to convince him otherwise but he would talk until he was blue in the face if it meant getting through to him that he was never meant to go through anything alone.

 

"Look at me, Pete.", Tony said gently as he used two of his calloused fingers to turn the boy's chin towards himself. "You'll be at MIT, just a few hours away.  You're going to make some friends and learn some crazy shit.  You're going to have the time of your life and whenever you need me ... or May or even Pepper, we're just a phone call away.  Hell, I'd catch a plane and be there in an hour if you asked me too."  After that, there was a moment of silence before Peter spoke again.

 

"What if I fail?", Peter asked with trepidation.  That possibility that had been weighing on him just as much as the impending separations and demands for self-sufficiency.  

 

"You won't--", Tony firmly replied with a nod of he head.  There was no doubt.  Even without his pull, Peter met or exceeded every single criterion. There would be no reason for him to fail.  He was more than ready to continue his education there.

 

"--but what if I do!", Peter shouted in frustration.  He was tired of hearing the same reassurances over and over again.  He didn't want to be coddled and placated all he wanted was an honest answer.  To know whether or not there was some sort of security net in place to catch him if he should fall.  "May is leaving in three months to start her new job and, and I can't just... I mean what would happen?  If I mess it up.  Then what?"

 

Tony sighed, he knew exactly what his kid was looking for.  He didn't like loose ends or uncertainty but he was more than smart enough to surmise exactly what would happen should he, by some unfavorable twist of fate,  that he did fall behind or just end up hating it in general.  Yet that wasn't enough, he needed to hear from someone else.  That someone else being Tony and he could do that for him.  He would do almost anything for him.  "Then you'll come back here, stay here with me and Pepper while your aunt travels.  You'll attend the local college or take some time off and reapply later if you choose to. That's not how it's going to work out though, you're going to be fine.  No doubt in my mind, kiddo."

 

Peter just nodded his head in marginal contentment and picked up the mug from the table beside him.  The marshmallows had long since turned to a foamy mush and the liquid below had cooled to the point that it no longer tasted pleasant when he brought it to his lips.   "Can't I have some coffee?", he asked with a smile tugging at his lips.

 

"Nope.", Tony said with a laugh before growing more serious. "...but what you can have is a nap.   It's late, you need some sleep.  I'll wake you up for lunch."

 

As they both rose from the couch, Peter sighed and leaned in to give the man a hug.  Despite the fact that he had grown to the point that he'd surpassed tony in height by nearly two inches,  he always bent down just enough that his head could still easily tuck under the man's chin.   "Thank you, Tony.", he whispered into the man's collar bone.  "You always know exactly what to say."

 

Squeezing the kid firmly to his chest, Tony laughed.  "Well, kid, you've given me a lot of practice.", he murmured as he lay his cheek onto the boy's hair.  "Now go to bed."

 

With some of the stress he'd been feeling eliminated, Peter sighed.  He was tired and there would be no denying it.  "Mm-hmm.", he finally hummed in response before slowly pulling away from the safety of the older man's embrace. "Love you."

 

"I love you too, Pete.", Tony said with a smile as he patted the kid on the shoulder and ushered towards his bedroom door.  Nothing made him happier than having that room occupied and he was going to miss having the kid there three to four nights out of seven once he was off at college but he'd never tell him that.  Besides with May on the road all the time, this was the room he would have to come home to on the occasional weekend and holidays.  For the first time ever, his home would be Peter's home too and not just a place that he sometimes visited.   In three months time, it would become his legal address and that felt oddly satisfying.  After spending maybe a moment or two too long watching the kid get comfortable under his sheets, Tony shut the door with a quiet click and went back to the study.  He only had another hour or so before Pepper was up and demanding that he get some sort of 'real work' done.  Until then, he would sit and tinker ...and think about Peter.


End file.
